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It is as a result of my dreams that I have come to be where I am. Here, in this place. A place where I can just close my eyes, and when I open them again I can't help but smile. It is here that I meet so many people who have dreams like I used to. They come in, and they go out again. Some come in happy and leave happy, but for others it is a different tale altogether. One time, I had a man come in, and he walked right to the dreaded region...the place where the most expensive diamonds were situated. My heart almost skipped a bit, and I actually opened my mouth a little bit too widely. I had to close them again and smile because he started walking towards me to ask for something. I thought he was out of his mind since he did not look like he could afford anything in that section.

You see, I work in the most expensive part of town, in this jewelry store called Cui-Fen, a word of Chinese origin that means "emerald fragrance." It is not a store for fragrances, but rather for all types of pearls, diamonds, and other expensive stones. Just like regular young people these days, after classes are over I usually find myself at this shopping district. Yet, since I started shopping here, I have not been intoxicated by just any random store; I fell in love with Cui-Fen the first time I set my eyes on it. To the extent that I went to see the manager one day and literally pleaded to work as an attendant here. To my surprise I got the job and was ecstatic. Now, I don't have to dream about diamonds anymore, because I see and touch them every day.

Yet, I have no rightful ownership to these precious stones...I am only a Keeper!!!

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"Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and KEEP it"

(Genesis 2:15)

I understand the reasons why we are so dissatisfied sometimes. I can comprehend now why many times we chase hard but only grasp the wind. I have figured out the reason why chasing the frivolities of life, rather than God, never ever turns out right.

We were placed here to tend and keep the earth. The original intention was for us to maintain the garden (or in modern day terminology: the world) in its most beautiful state. Not to be selfishly so into ourselves that we start to chase after the things in the garden for our selfish wants. Whatever we have today is a GIFT, and not a right. Whatever we have today is not just for our benefits, but for someone else who has a need. It is only by grace that we are who we are today.

If God placed Adam in the world to look after the world, then it would make sense that God would walk with him at the cool of the day to discuss the plans He has for the garden. The plans God has for the world, not Adam's plans for the world. That's why we get so dissatisfied in today's society. We no longer know and/or seek the One who owns the world, and whose plans and goals we have to fulfill. Instead, we choose to chase the wind and grasp for air, yet the real deal is behind the wind. We chase material things and forget the ultimate plan. We forget that we are only the Keepers, and He is the Owner. Frivolous!!!

Father, please teach me how to be a better keeper. Walk with me in the cool of the day and train my feet not to chase frivolities, but to chase You.

Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end.It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.What will matter is not your success, but your significance.What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.What will matter is not your competence, but your character.What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.Choose to live a life that matters.

“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” - Galatians 1:10

Frivolous: Of little or no weight, worth, or importance (Dictionary Unabridged). Frovolity: the state of being frivolous.

Frivolity: Chasing something that is not worthy of utmost serious attention (mine)

Walking down 33rd street has become part of my daily ritual. It takes me down memory lane. I remember very vividly those sunny days that I and my sisters would hold hands and take a stroll, playing the walking game of who can match the footsteps of the others. Now I am twenty-eight and I still walk down these same paths, like I've never been down this road before.

I look up, squinting at the sun's rays. I reach the lake and bend down to pick up some pebbles. I fling two of them and some ripples start to form around the corner. The water is no longer the deep blue it once was, it is sad but it is still delightful to look at regardless. I sit down beside lake Ricoco and bend my legs inwards like those Yoga people at Troy shop do. I breathe in softly and sigh out loudly. When I was twenty I made some goals for myself. I wanted to be on top of the clouds. I wanted to have a private driveway for my Ferrari. A very long one. I wanted to live in the 20101 zip code. A distinct class by itself. I also remember writing the list. The big dream list.

A man who could look into my soul. Skin that would never age. An IQ that will never be conquered. A house powered by solar energy. A private island just for my family. Connections to powerful presidents and senators. Sole ownerships of industries and factories. Oh, just to name a few. I thought long and hard at the frivolities of life. I wondered about how hard the chase was. And I almost gave myself a pat on the back. Here I was at twenty-eight, a self-accomplished entrepreneur with a husband that I loved with all my heart and kids that were adorable...

But considering all my accomplishments and more, I considered that I am nothing without God. The full satisfaction I have now only came when I had that surprising encounter with God. I was walking down this same road just as other times when I broke down. The experience was phenomenal. Suddenly all those other things I had been chasing for almost a decade became small in my eyes while my view of God became zoomed in. I considered that the reason why we accomplish these things is only really to show-case the abundance of the kingdom of God, to be lenders and not borrowers, and to save the lost. Every other reason becomes of little or no weight, worth or importance. Frivolous!!!

He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, But he who follows frivolityis devoid of understanding...(Proverbs 12:11)

Myproblem has never been the attraction. They get attracted to me everywhere I go, swarms and swarms of them, like bees being released from the hive for the first time. This is how it works: he spots me in a crowd of people, stares at me for a while, usually between five to thirty minutes, and then he starts to make his way towards me. He gets a few bumps here and there because his eyes are on me and he's not watching his steps carefully. Sometimes he gets yelled at, but he still keeps coming. I observe all these from the corner of my dark eyes.

But in Nathaniel's case there were only a few similarities to previous occurrences. Almost everything in the first paragraph happened in the same way, except that this time I was the one who made my way towards him. It just seemed like the right thing to do, unless my brain was lying to me or I wasn't in tune with my sixth sense. I wanted it. I wanted it badly. So I began to walk towards him, without watching my steps too closely. He was sitting alone, as if waiting for something like this to happen.

"Hello, I'm Ruth. Mind if I join you?"

He looked up at me for a few seconds without blinking his long eyelashes, and finally gestured for me to have a seat. It was the beginning of a new romance. I found out that he worked in the building next to mine and apparently we had been eating at the same restaurant for lunch for the past two years without knowing. We were like night and day but we matched just fine. But I never opened myself up to him. Each day we took a walk in the park he would tell me all about his childhood days, how Ian bullied him and threw him in a thrash can once, or how his papa was addicted to his pipe. But I wouldn't say nothing about myself apart from the fact that I enjoyed the dinner we had together the other night. I just couldn't bring myself to say such things...I couldn't fall deeper. I was too afraid.

Afraid of getting hurt again.

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I was inspired to write this because I feel that many of us need to fall deeper in LOVE with GOD. Yes God, not man. Romance is a part of our lives, but there's an even higher calling to LOVE and WORSHIP God.

In the book of 2 Kings chapter 4, a certain woman cried out to Elisha to help her. She was a widow and her husband's debtors were on their way to her house. She didn't know what to do. Elisha asked her what she had in her house and her response was, "only a jar of oil." Then he sent her to borrow as many jars as she could, from neighbors...or even anyone she could find. But he warned her not to find "a few" but "a lot."

That was a test to see how DEEP she could go. She found quite a number of jars, but as Elisha filled the last jar with oil he asked her for another jar and she said that was the last one. That was when the oil CEASED. As many jars as she could find were miraculously filled with oil and she was able to sell it and pay all the debtors. But guess what? If she had found one more jar she would have made even more profit.

How deep are you willing to fall in love with God? Are you willing to see Him higher than everything you have right now? Are you willing to reveal the entirety of your heart and let Him in where you've never let anyone? Do you think you can consider that He's the most important embodiment in this life? The most important treasure? Can you fall deeply in love with Him? Can you worship Him in a deeper way in 2010 and even with your whole being?

To love someone usually means opening up yourself to them. To marry someone means that this person will become one flesh with you and be your best friend, and then even your family will become second after him or her. To go deeper with God means that you will stretch yourself more than you've ever done to seek His face and FIND His love. Many times the reason we don't find His love is because we're afraid to fall deeper...to get extra jars of oil.

You can CHOOSE to fall DEEPER...you can CHOOSE to do things differently and LOVE deeper than you've ever loved before.

Nothing happened to end the world in 2009. Yes, we're still here, here on planet earth, here with our nostrils stretched upwards to receive the oxygen that comes with each day. December came by and with it came the heavy snows engulfing the midwest, the wet winds that blew from places we don't even know, and the dreadful Harmattan dry winds blowing south from the Sahara and into the Gulf of Guinea. In December we also had Christmas trees, and maybe a few gifts from family. It was a beautiful season to celebrate, to dine, to laugh, and to treasure those close to our hearts.

January also came by and many took their New Year vacations-- some stormed to New York City and specifically to the Time Square to watch the ancient tradition of the new year's eve ball drop, and maybe to kiss under some hand-held mistletoes. Others like myself and the significant other flocked the doors of Disney and Seaworld to celebrate the beginning of life and love. Still others stayed in-doors watching China and other Countries on CNN counting down to the New Year. The hearts of many human beings were set on fire, beating as hard as the loudest talking drums...just waiting...and waiting...and waiting. Waiting for something good to happen.

A few days have passed since the new year began, and for many of us...well, our hearts are still beating. The expectations for this year are enormous and sincere. Today, I opened my Bible and read the book of Luke where Jesus was led into the wilderness. In hind-sight, I know that His heart was also beating loudly, because He also had great expectations. He knew He had a calling on this earth, to do grand things that had never been seen before. So yes, His own heart must have been beating too. That was when Satan came and asked Him to turn the stones into bread, seeing that He had not eaten for many days and was very hungry.

Now the next statement made by Jesus would be something that would remain in our hearts for many centuries after. He answered the devil and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'".This statement means that our human bodies will always want to be satisfied by carnal and physical things. This applies to food, but in thinking about this scripture I went past food itself. There are other things the human body desperately wants, such as the desire for romance, the pleasures of wealth, the competitive spirit to be above others, the ability to be able to buy or do anything one pleases, and even more. The physical pleasures of life...the whole nine yards.

But when I read Luke today, I realized that in this year if anyone of us is focused on all these things as a first choice, then we would miss the mark. The word of God is the first choice. "Not by bread alone"-- this means that YES we would need bread because we are human...but there's something way more important than bread-- we need the word of God to lead us in the right direction to find the right bread. Don't know if I'm making sense but I will try to explain again. God must come first in your life this year. If you don't know who He is, ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Then when He does, He will show you the bread of life that can make you satisfied. And when He does, you will have accomplished the search for the kingdom, and all other pleasures of life will automatically run after you. You shouldn't run after pleasures this year, run after God first and the pleasures will follow you. Trust me, that's the best way to get satisfied. Chasing after physical pleasures rather than God first will get you no-where. Many have tried, and they ended up in places you don't wanna be. If you're reading this, I really pray that you'll make up your mind not to chase after chunks of bread. But to chase hard after God!

SELAHHappy new year blogsville...may you have the heart to chase God this year and even forever...Cheers...:)